Tyler The Creator PBS Tavis Smiley Square
Odd Futurian Tyler The Creator pulled up a chair with PBS's Tavis Smiley last night to talk about his new LP, Cherry Bomb, his love of Roy Ayers, reading about science outside of school, and much more. Tyler was praised repeatedly by Smiley, who was taken by his interest in 20th century greats like Ayers and acknowledged that the 24 year-old MC is in fact brimming with creativity and skill. Tyler, perhaps predictably, agreed, and when asked when he thought people's perception of him was, he replied "I'm very bright, I'm smart, I'm annoying and obnoxious. I'm very creative and a borderline genius, and I think other people see that too--or are starting to see the other good points."
Fans of Tyler's recent work will enjoy hearing the inside story of how he got turned on to Pharrell's work through N.E.R.D. and how his collaboration with Ayers (the jazz legend can be heard on Cherry Bomb cut "Find Your Wings") came to be. Smiley also pressed Tyler to divulge about his very successful Golf Media mobile app, and got him to open up about his past as a class clown during his younger days in school. Perhaps most interesting (and contentious) is the MC's justification of his own eclectic sound. "It sucks, just our community as black people," Tyler said. "We're kind of closed minded, very closed minded. So, back then, they would just consider a guitar 'white boy music.' So me listening to different types of music--they'll easily regard that as 'white boy music' and would just shun you. Regardless of even if you like rap and things like that. So the way that I was cool with the black kids was the fact that I knew how to rap." The entire interview is of a most enlightening one and you can watch it in full below.
